The Kindle Fire - A Full Color Version!

Kindle Fire, Full Color 7" Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi

Amazon just made the new Kindle Fire available for pre-order. It won't be delivered til Nov. 17th, but when Amazon starts sending them out, they'll be doing it on a first come first serve basis with the pre-orders; and I'm sure Amazon will run out before they fill ALL of the pre-orders because it's going to be in high demand. It rivals the Ipad2 except for three things. First, it connects to the internet by wi-fi rather than 3G; second, it offers only a 7inch display while Ipad's is a 10inch; and last, it doesn't have a camera (but neither does the original Ipad).

The main selling point of this new Kindle Fire, though, is that it compares to the Ipad with most other features--but the cost is only $199 - compared to Ipad's $499! So pre-order it today! You can always delete it from your Amazon cart before the middle of November if you change your mind.

Google Doodle Honoring Jim Hensen

Fabulous!

Take a fantastic trip around the world by viewing these images (posted by Ajal Shan on Google+) of some of the most fabulous architectural creations on earth.

(you should be able to see these Google+ photos but if not it might be because you are not signed in to your Google account.)

...not sure why the Aqua Skyscraper in Chicago wasn't included -
and more photos here.

Funny Stuff...

I don't usually post GCU's Design of the Day picks here on my personal blog since I have a separate blog for those, but this one had me ROFLMAO and I feel like I have to share it as pervasively as I can. Lol.

GCU's Sept. 22, 2011 Design of the Day is by Ross Peterson and it is hilarious! My hubby and I celebrated our twenty-something anniversary this week and this would have been the ideal card for me to surprise him with. Lol!

Ross has a very colorful and cartoonish style and his humor is to die for. You should pop on over to his store, Cards By Ross, RIGHT NOW and buy some cards from him so that HE doesn't die of starvation. ;P

Papers, Projects, and Parrots (oh my)

This first link just came to me from Stumble Upon, even though it is kind of old. It's the first time I've seen it and it impressed me (and will hopefully inspire me with some future paper projects of my own - lol). Also, it's been awhile since I've posted anything related to paper-cutting, and I *do* love cuttables, so I think it's time.  ;)

Everything but the Paper Cut: Eye-popping Ways Artists Use Paper

This second link came to me by Mary McQueen, the blog author, through a Greeting Card Association that we both belong to:

Hand and Beak: Free Range Inter-Species Greeting Cards. Mary has two lovebirds, and one of them, Luigi, shreds paper very neatly. Mary then uses Luigi's paper shreds to make beautiful art for greeting cards. This is a must see blog, and especially the video (with subtitles) on the right.

Luigi even inspired me with my 365-Day Challenge (see Day 61).

Halloween Blog Carnival with GCUCommunity

I don’t really remember my own Halloween experiences from when I was growing up, so I’ll just provide a couple of tidbits that I found on Louie Volpe’s "Holidays On The Net" website (I used to work for Louie many years ago before chemo messed up my memory and interfered with my ability to do internet (cgi) programming).

Anyhow, here are the tidbits. :)
Halloween isn’t the pagan holiday that many think it is, although quite a few of the traditions do date back to the Celtics. Wearing animal costumes is something ancient Celts did to mark the end of summer. Trick or treating traditions stem from the Celtic holiday of Samhain—a time to honor those who died in the past year—when the Celts would leave out food for their deceased family members’ spirits to eat before their long journey. Over the centuries, the tradition came to be known as mumming, when revelers would dress up as spirits and perform antics in exchange for food. Fun, right? I can picture it. Lol.

Here are some cards to get you thinking about your own Halloween plans. The spookiness is just around the corner. ;)



Artists are Molly Harrison, Robin's Coloring Book, Corrie Kuipers, and me. :)

Update ... Here are the other entries in this High Spirited Blog Carnival:

Spirit Orbs with Whiskers

“As the days grow shorter and the nights cool…”

Bud & Tony, Betty Matsumoto-Schuch

Halloween Blog Carnival

“Halloween isn’t the pagan holiday that many think it is…”

I Love Cuttables, Cindy Johns

Ghost Time

“To be honest, I’m not into scary experiences…”

Aura2000, Aura 2000

We Only Thought We Wanted a Séance

“When my twin brother and I were younger, we did a lot of crazy things…”

DB Visual Arts, Denise Beverly

Ghosts and Goblins and Witches, Oh My!

“There’s a chilly wind blowing…”

Hand-Me-Downz, Richard Skelley

Haunted House Halloween Party Invitations

“Lost, we creep along a dark road toward a lighted porch…”

It’s a Beautiful World, Catherine Sherman

The Haunting of Parnell House

“I saw a dark red puddle at the foot of the stairs…”

Janet Lee Designs, Janet Palaggi

Monster in My Woods

“We heard the distinctive sound of a woman being mauled…”

Dragonfire Graphics, Betsy Bush

The Proposal

“The place is said to be haunted…”

Reel Cards, Robert Bulanadi

Cards, Cards, Cards! :-)

I would like to invite you to visit a new blog that I created to share Greeting Card Universe's Design of the Day picks. GCU has been making the picks since early May of 2011, and after a wonderful suggestion by Corrie Kuipers over at GCUCommunity.com, I've decided to share these splendid cards every day with the world (or anyone who visits my blog - lol). :)

Here is a link to that very blog, and also here is a link to an archive of the Design of the Day picks prior to yesterday.

On another note about cards, World Card Making Day is coming up on October 1st. :) I think the World Card Making Day website is geared more towards paper-pieced and hand-made cards, but one can still get a lot of good ideas there. ;)

AND...since I did make this post all about cards, I would be remiss if I didn't share a couple with you. These are two very recent cards of mine that were approved by GCU. The first celebrates getting braces on, and the second celebrates getting braces off.

An Inkling, Adding Outlines to Cartoon Pieces, and Turning Photographs into Pencil Sketches

I'm in an online Greeting Card Association group through Yahoo, and another member posted a cool link to a new product soon to be released by Wacom. This Inkling video shows how you can turn your ballpoint sketchpad drawings into digital images like magic using the Wacom Inkling Digital Sketch Pen.

For now, though, I'm still doing my sketches on my PC. I recently found a way to put borders around my cartoon pieces. I watched this video that explains how to create stencils using the 'linked offset' in Inkscape (by Aussie Carolyn) a few days ago, and then I realized that I could use this technique for adding dark outlines to my cartoons, as shown in yesterday's 365-Day Challenge project (day 48, the owl in the tree) and the card that later got approved using the same image (left).

Finally, in the Greeting Card group I mentioned above, that same member also provided us with a link to an online photography magazine called PhotographyBB. Since I'm not much of a photographer, I don't usually spend much time with these kinds of resources, but this one seems very useful for explaining digital illustrating techniques as well. In the Aug. 2011 issue, (beginning on page 44) a technique to turn photographs into pencil sketches with Photoshop is explained. I don't have Photoshop yet, but I do have Gimp, and when I'm more comfortable using it, I will try out this technique for one of my daily challenge projects. :)